The present invention relates to an apparatus for reading and/or recording an image in a facsimile or the like and, more particularly, to such apparatus and method capable of enlarging and reducing an image at a desired magnification.
It has been customary in the prior art heretofore that a desired image magnification in a copying machine or the like is attained by optically enlarging or reducing an original image through a zoom lens. However, such apparatus equipped with a zoom lens is expensive and has a drawback that its image forming capability is inferior to the image value achieved through any lens of a fixed focal length with further disadvantages including a narrow image magnification range and the necessity of a mechanical device for driving the zoom lens, whereby the mechanism is rendered structurally complicated.